How to eat your way through Melbourne

It is incredibly tough not to abandon all sense when it comes to eating in Melbourne. Self restraint goes out the door, hand in hand with whatever was left of your sensibility. Melbourne is full of guilty indulgence where its food culture far surpasses its drinking culture (yet it doesn't shy away from an expertly mixed cocktail or a delicious mulled wine). Here's a few suggestions on how to eat your way through Melbourne. Don't hold the sauce and remember, wear loose pants. 

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Dinner: Tonka

Another from the Adam D'Sylva Empire, Tonka presents upmarket Indian food with a contemporary twist. If you cannot find a seat at the back of the restaurant, perch yourself at the bar Thali where you can enjoy an extensive cocktail list and divulge in smaller and bigger plates consisting of tuna tartare and classic butter chicken.

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Dessert: Coda

Asian and French inspired cuisine are the keywords at Coda. Must try sweet plates include the Toasted meringue with vanilla sponge, young coconut, roasted banana and yuzu. Don't forget to ask what other specials are not listed on the menu, as you may find yourself having the additional option of a perfectly made fig souffle. 

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Early morning snack (Plan A): Lune Croissanterie

Early bird gets the buttery, flakey croissant. I mean it. These croissants are elusive, baked fresh and rested and overnight. They are no longer supplied to cafes around town as they have their own warehouse/bakery in Fitzroy with lines billowing out the door. Everyone wants a bite of Paris and Lune offers that in exchange for a weekend sleep in.

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Breakfast: Industry Beans

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Mid-morning take away (Plan B): Rustica Sourdough

If Lune Croissants falls through, Plan B in Fitzroy is Rustica Sourdough. Rustica Sourdough supports sustainable farming and employs local produce in all the deliciousness they make and bake.

Few places offer coffee caviar with brioche and pineapple. The same can be said about pea pannacotta. As a warehouse that roasts its own coffee, it comes as no surprise that their signature blends are paired perfectly with their breakfast options. The coffee is seriously top notch, brewed with love and perfection from their invested experts.

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Lunch and : Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

You would think that no further words need to explain the genius and ingenuity of Heston Blumenthal - and that's correct. You merely need to taste his food. Take the opportunity and dive in. 

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Dessert: Adrianno Zumbo - Fancy Nance

Dessert degustations are an experience in themselves, particularly when they're curated by Adrianno Zumbo. A complete dessert magician, he can incorporate the strangest of ingredients together and make them work. Potato puree with blueberries for example, are a strange but somehow suitable combination. The lemon meringue pie was a definite favourite with just the right amount of stickiness, tartness and sweetness.

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Dinner: Mamak

Pass me another satay stick please. Although not a roadside stall, Mamak on Londsdale Street is an eatery that doesn't beat around the bush and offers street side dishes. You're in for some spice or you're out.

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Brunch: Top Paddock

Most places only give you one poached egg per dish, but Top Paddock gives you two, beautiful eggs and a gorgeous setting by which to enjoy them. The food is delicious and breaks away from conventional breakfast ingredients, offering roasted pork and crackling for breakfast and thinly sliced potato stacks. Don't even get me talking about the breakfast hot cake which is by far the most colourful breakfast I've ever laid eyes on.

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Pit Stop: Short Stop Coffee and Donuts

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Donuts, glorious donuts. You can watch them be prepared fresh for you through viewing glass or you can attempt to stop the salivation as you peer through the bay-maries. Each day the donuts on offer change, but the quality and taste remains the same. Make Short Stop a Pit-Stop. 

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Cafe Cre Asion

Sydney. Iris. A girl after my own heart when it comes to food, literature, hidden cafes. As expected, the weekend was awash with delicious new discoveries, walks for hours and hours, the sharing of breakfasts and the snapping of photographs. Cloudy Sydney with its temperamental weather couldn't keep us from visiting Cafe Cre Asion, tucked away in the neighbourhood of Surry Hills. The cafe is located in a completely unsuspecting street with tables and chairs skirted around outside. At first glance, it doesn't seem like much but it's when you enter that you are truly charmed by this small cafe. 

The cafe came to be about five years ago and was opened up by a restaurant owner from Japan. It is therefore no surprise that they specialise in matcha-based dishes. Nor is it a surprise that they beautifully capture the astringency of this magical tea leaf or its subtle taste, especially when the tea is sourced from Shimane Prefecture in Japan. Cafe Cre Asion will not disappoint.

Although the seating was limited and resembled small children's chairs (you'll find that your knees are the same height as the table), being seated quite close to other people has proven a surprise. A Japanese man seated next to me in blue parker sipped on what appeared to be what was left of his matcha latte. Soon after, he cleared his throat and struck up conversation. He turned out to be a friend of the owner. He told us how he was running an udon restaurant a few blocks away and invited us for a visit. 

With us he shared his friend's vision to re-create a quaint, simple and earnest Japanese-fusion cafe that brought to Sydney a small snippet of the best of Japan's cakes. Although the owner was incredibly popular and highly ranked on Zomato, it meant long hours and constantly in the kitchen helping to create breakfast and sweets for hungry Sydneysiders. 

There is limited seating inside, and I would recommend selecting  your seat and saving it, as people flow in swiftly and although you may feel a little bad for hanging around when lines get long, others eat at their leisure and you may find yourself having to swap your dine in for a take away. While you wait you can stare and be tempted by a beautiful display cabinet of macarons, matcha and red azuki bean muffins and swiss rolls. Behind the glass and the counter, you can watch the staff freshly bake the cafe's cakes, working hard to bring together plates of toasted bread and bowls of matcha latte. The macarons are interesting flavours, pulling together Japanese influences of yuzu, flavours of chai tea, popcorn and others of cassis. 

House made whole grain sourdough toast with avocado and swiss brown mushrooms ($10.00, $3.00 for add on of mushroom)

Sourdough with caramelised fuji apple, ricotta cheese and organic wild honey ($9.00)

As a lover of mushrooms, Iris chose to have a savoury breakfast to be followed by a sweet ending. The mushrooms and avocado were additions to the whole grain sourdough toast. The organic wild honey topped off the sweetness of the apple through the creamy ricotta cheese in my selection. The sourdough, although light on the inside, was tough to chew when it came to the crust. Apart from the bread, I enjoyed the combination of flavours.

A few slices through and I was already quite full and mixed it up with the kinako mochi. The kinako mochi was mellow and cooling, reflecting a small kakigori or shirokuma with its slices of fuji apple and snow like ice shavings. One to be eaten while cold and not melted, that's for sure. 

Kinako mochi, roasted green tea jelly, red beans and kuromitsu syrup ($9.50) and chai latte, yuzu and lemonade, lychee and raspberry macarons ($3.00ea)

The matcha latte comes in what many are uncertain of being a cup or a bowl, but nevertheless is accepted with open hands. Smooth, creamy and green liquid gold sits unwaveringly. Best served hot, for those that are new to matcha and green tea it may be a bit more bitter than expected. Super creamy and not overly thick or strong, it was probably one of the best matcha latte's I've had in Australia.

Matcha latte ($5.00)

Matcha chocolate fondant, summer berries and matcha cream ($8.50)

As far as I am concerned, the matcha fondant is no doubt the cafe's signature dish. The centre is gooey, the matcha spills out as you break the cake and the astringent taste melds well with the chocolate cake. The cake is warm and comforting, the fondant's consistency being something many cafes and restaurants find hard to achieve. The berries add a sweetness and there's even additional matcha cream you can pour over your fondant with carelessness. Dare I say it, it's better than Nobu Perth's recently attributed matcha fondant dessert menu item, and for a third of the price.

I will give Cafe Cre Asion another visit on my next trip to Sydney, although I may leave room in my stomach to try out a few more macaron flavours and see how their matcha swiss roll compares to my own. Don't be surprised if you see me indulging myself in a matcha fondant and a large bowl of their ridiculously fulfilling matcha latte, all for one.

Devon Cafe

I admit I felt incredibly self indulgent the day I stepped out of Devon Cafe in Surry Hills. Little did I know upon entering that Devon was and is run by two ex-Guillaume chefs who left the fine dining scene to throw in a little more flair to the casual comfort food dishes on offer for breakfast and lunch. Since opening in 2014, it has won awards, been featured in Good Food Guide and as a general rule, is quite popular on Sydney Instagram feeds. 

The cafe staff were joking loudly to themselves, singing the choruses of pop songs (Bang Bang no less) with no problems but faltering and muttering when it came to the verses. Obvious slip ups of lyrics were followed by laughter. A guy with cool hair and a warm smile greeted me and showed me to the private courtyard of the cafe, where a few groups had gathered over coffee and breakfast backed by a graffitied wall and utilitarian style camouflage netting. 

As I was on my own and the staff had proven entertaining, I chose to sit at the long table at the front of the cafe, where natural light poured in over the long wooden table and the sound of bicycles and cars swooshed past on Devonshire Street outside. I watched as suppliers came through the cafe with boxes of flour, beans and milk, stocking up for the weekend. Regulars lining at the counter were asked what they wanted but it was clear that they always ordered the same to go. Flat white. Latte. Picturesque swans in a cup.

The same person that had greeted me earlier whose name I discovered was Calvin, swung by the table, handed me a menu and struck up conversation. "Have you eaten at Devon before?" No was my response but he continued with a smile. "Then if that is the case, I suggest you go with my personal favourite, the Cookies 'N Cream! It's just the right amount of sweetness, and it will fill you up. It's also really pretty. Don't look at the other items on the menu, unless you'd prefer something a little savoury in which case I'd recommend the Breakfast with the Sakuma's. But the Cookies 'N Cream will surprise you. Trust me." So I did. 

The staff struck up conversation and after spotting my camera, invited me to take photographs of the cafe, posing in a few of the shots only to realise I had been recording video footage. The laughter and slight embarrassment that ensued contributed to the atmosphere. Service was friendly, down to earth and attentive given the casual vibe of the cafe. The counter offered macarons, homemade ricotta, sticky fig and honey muffins in addition to savoury toast but I was drawn to the food menu.

Reading through the menu the items seemed hearty and oh so guilty. 63 degree egg? Fairy bread and fairy floss? Pork crackling and apple jus? Okay, if you insist. The menu is all day (or at least until 3pm when the kitchen closes) and each of the items blur the lines between breakfast, lunch and dessert. The hardest part is picking which dish to order. Once you have though, the category of food becomes an ignored technicality as you're too busy relishing the balance of sweet and tangy on your tastebuds to remember if it should even be classed as breakfast. 

A stack of purples, browns and pinks on a plate made its way from the kitchen to the empty space in front of me. It took a little while for me wrap my mind around the layered perfection and for a split second I wasn't sure if it was what I had ordered. Calvin walked past, signalled me with an A-ok sign and gloated at my reaction. I was then left to enjoy/pluck up the courage to break this cinnamon muesli based cookie with my fork. 

Although it was indulgent, Calvin was correct, it had just the right amount of sweetness. The structure of the cookie did not cause it to crumble into pieces once the fork divided it, instead it held its own. That didn't meant to say it was dry. The raspberry cream was smooth, light and tangy and if your tastebuds were tickled a little too much, the flavours could be adjusted with an introduction of the sweet droplets of strawberry gel. Finish with a bit of violet depth. 

Buttery feuilletine was crumbled into two chaotic piles on either side of the centrepiece, mixed in with purple, pink and gold sparkles for good measure. The fresh raspberries sat atop the dish in glory and were the last to go.  This quirky and colourful rendition of Cookies 'N Cream was so far removed from the typical associations of chocolate and vanilla. It further foregrounded the food on offer as unique and modern twists on the classic dish. 

On my next trip to Sydney, I'd be keen to re-visit Devon. Its seasonal menu makes it an attractive cafe haunt and the modern east meets west dishes on offer at its sister cafe Devon on Danks is equally as tempting. Did I also mention they have a Devon by Night? Too many options, not enough stomachs. 

76 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills
Sydney, NSW 2010

The Winery Sydney

There are places you venture to that truly reflect the people you are with. The Winery is one such place that reflects the colour, sophistication and fun-loving nature of Iris. A short walk from her apartment in Surry Hills, I found myself standing in front of a canopy of creeping leaves and a passageway that lead to the enjoyment of my last dinner in Sydney. The Winery is situated to perfectly watch the sun set behind the city skyline, as golden glows turn into blue hues and fairy lights add to that lost glitter of the afternoon light. 

Before the Melbourne Cup, ready horse-goers and lovers of frocks and fancy sipped a few in the garden while others wanting a little more privacy sat in the champagne lounge upstairs.

We ordered sweet potato fries, dabbled with rosemary salt (totally hitting the spot), porcini arancini and dusted squid. For mains Iris opted for penne and I went with barramundi. The wine list as this laneway winery is nothing to scoff at, neither are the decent food items available on the menu.

We did however, skip dessert here instead heading to Kurtosh but somehow got distracted by Gelato Messina on the way there. The Winery is a lovely place to go with a group of friends but be aware to make a booking as the number of people confirm it's a popular place to go for drinks after work on any night of the week. 

Night Noodle Markets Sydney

Sydney Guide: Sweets

For those that need something sweet in their lives, here are some sweet treats to remember and where to get them the next time you're venturing around Sydney.

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Aqua S

For soft serves as light and as fluffy as clouds, pay a visit to Aqua S. They're well known for their sea salt swirls of aqua blue and toppings of fairy floss, burnt marshmallow, popping candy and caramel popcorn. Flavours are on rotation but sea salt is their specialty.

Devon Cafe

A place where you can truly eat what would normally be a night snack, for breakfast. We're talking about the Cookies 'N Cream. It's a delicious and cinnamon based muesli cookie, topped with violets, raspberries and a strawberry and violet gel with raspberry cream. It's as sinful as it looks, but remains light and fresh.

ONE Tea Lounge & Grill

A recent addition to York Street, ONE Tea Lounge & Grill has been abuzz due to these dessert baogers, offering fillings of matcha ice-cream and black sesame in between two deep fried - deliciously soft on the inside - crispy on the outside baos. Top these off with a little miso caramel sauce and you're good to go.

Black Star Pastry

A trip to Sydney just would not be complete if you did not pay a visit to Black Star Pastry for its "world famous" strawberry and watermelon cake. Soft, light and pretty, the strawberry watermelon cake is a must try. The watermelon also doesn't at all clash with the cream as you may have thought, instead they complement each other well and there's some satisfaction in running your fork through the watermelon.

Gelato Messina

Okay, tell me one person who hasn't heard someone rave about Gelato Messina? With flavours that are experimental but brilliant, Gelato Messina cannot go wrong. When they offer red velvet gelato, pear and rhubarb, pavlova, salted caramel and white chocolate or even your simple but delicious vanilla, you have to pull yourself in line and try to refrain from purchasing their five taste platter. I didn't have the self restraint not to.

Chanoma

If you are looking for some serious matcha heaven that best reflects what is available in a sweet parfait store in Tokyo, Chanoma is not a place to miss. Lines are long but service is swift and you'll find yourself diving into the likes of the below. Or if you prefer something a little more simple, they also do straight matcha soft serves. Their hotdogs are also really good too.

Adriano Zumbo at the Star

There's a reason why this V8 Vanilla Cake was a pressure test challenge in the Australia Masterchef Finals. It's incredibly amazing. With layers of vanilla chantilly, toasted brûlée, vanilla water gel, macaron, almond crunch, dacquoise, ganache and glaze ... how can anyone resist? Zumbo is famous for his croquembouche, macarons with a difference (hello salted popcorn, malt milkshake and new york blueberry cheesecake) and various other masterful concoctions, he is a true modern day Willy Wonka. Pay a visit.

Cafe Cre Asion

It's a cafe tucked in the side streets in Surry Hills. It also gets very busy and is a favourite pick for locals. Simple but delicious dishes and tasty sweet treats are available for you morning through afternoon. The matcha fondant is one to note, particularly as it is soft, warm and oozes just the right consistency of matcha from the middle. Their macarons and green tea swiss roll are also lovely.